Video Transcript
Hi I am Dr Dani and today I am going to dispel 10 of the most common food myths, which will help you stay healthier, lose weight and gain more energy. Many of these myths are the result of old marketing campaigns from the evil big food companies so lets set the record straight!
1 Low fat and fat free dairy is healthy and better than full fat. This isa actually wrong, as more and more research is discovering. It’s true that dairy of any kind eaten in excess isn’t healthy for adults, but if you are going to include dairy, choose full fat natural yoghurt instead of fat free and avoid skim milk. the full fat varieties can actually help us feel more satisfied and won’t make you fat vs. the fat free stuff has been stripped of all it’s good stuff.
2 Margarine is better than butter b/c butter will give you high cholesterol and make you fat. Margarine is made out of unhealthy ‘manufactured’ oils, including trans fats, that cause hardenning of arteries and can actually increase your risk of heart disease, not help it! Butter, used in moderation, is a healthier natural choice.
3 Eating dietary fat will make you fat and you should stick to a low fat diet if you’re trying to lose weight. Actually, low fat diets make your body secrete more insulin, a hormone that when we have too much of it, makes us fat. Eating healthy fats including organic meats in moderation will help keep weight stable.
4 coconut oil is bad for you and canola oil is healthy. Again wrong advice! Coconut oil has a type of fat in it called medium chain fatty acids that actually help with weight loss, while canola oil is a polyunsaturated fat, the kind we have too much of already in our diet and can cause problems with our metabolism.
5 ‘Organic’ doesn’t really mean anything it’s just a marketting ploy to get you to spend more money–it’s fine to buy conventional produce. This unfortunately for your wallet, is also a lie. although it’s totally fine to buy ‘unsprayed’ local produce instead of organic, as the main reasons to buy organic is so that you’re not putting poisonous chemicals and toxins into your body. Organic fruit and veggies also have far more nutrient content.
6 Eggs are bad for you because they have too much cholesterol. Again, this is outdated information. The fat and cholesterol that’s in eggs will not increase your ‘bad’ cholesterol–most of the cholesterol is from inside our bodies, not from our diets! eggs are a healthy source of protein and fat and help regulate your body’s hormones and metabolism. you can have eggs every day for breakfast and it is perfectly healthy.
7 You get enough vitamin D from being in the sun and from drinking milk. This is not true, especially if you live in a non-tropical climate. Most people in the Pacific Northwest, like in Vancouver where I live, and in Northern Europe, are vitamin D deficient and need to take at least 2000IU of vit D per day year round to maintain good health.
8 Drinking milk is the best source of calcium and milk makes your bones strong. . In fact, drinking too much cows milk may be bad for your bones and increase your risk of certain cancers. Good, non-dairy sources of calcium include collards, bok choy, fortified soy milk, baked beans, and supplements that contain both calcium and vitamin D (a better choice than taking calcium alone).
9 ‘Sugar free’ drinks and snacks are healthier. Wrong! Artificial sweeteners are evil. They are manufactured chemicals that contain harmful ingredients–some of them are carcinogenic in animals and even the ones that aren’t mess up your body’s hormone levels and make you crave bad food and can cause weight gain–ironic considering they are supposed to be a good choice for people on a diet!
10 If one glass of wine is good, two must be ok… Unfortunately for wine lovers, after the first glass, the negative effects of alcohol on health start to outweigh the good ones even with red wine, including increases in certain cancer risk and premature aging. Sorry folks!
So that is the 10 biggest food myths busted! I know some of those are going to be really controversial for a lot of people, we get really attached to our eating habits especially when we have been told they are healthy, and the food companies do a really good job of pushing out information that support any myth which increases their sales, but all the latest research evidence tells a very different story. Which of these myths have affected your eating habits? Where did you get that information? What other food myths or beliefs do you want clarified? I want to know! Leave me a comment below and I will respond in a future video.